Day: January 5, 2018

Yesterday was Winter Storm Grayson, to me it was just a big another big old N’oreastah, but as long as we don’t loose electricity, we can get through them pretty well. We didn’t, so things went along pretty well. Although it did mean a LOT of time outside in the wonderful weather. Getting to snowblow the driveway with 10-12″ the first time at 3:30 PM yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours, then another 5+” at 8:00 PM for another two hours, meant that I was pretty tired by the time I got into bed.

Then this morning getting up early for chauffeur duty, meant I got to do the end of the driveway in the dark (otherwise the truck would have gotten hung up) with the snow scoop, then driving in 4WD for an hour and half, kept me pretty much on 100% alert – no relaxing while driving this morning.

Thankfully, doing most of the driveway last night meant that there was only an inch or two left to quickly go over again. It still took about an hour or so to get things all done.

After getting done, I did notice that the neighbor had stopped snow blowing and his snowblower was barely visible from where I was. He is an 80 year old ornery old fart (I like him and get a long pretty well with him), who wants to keep doing things for himself. So I thought that his blower might have broke down. So I went over with my big old Husqvarna to see if I could help out. He came out and started his back up (he was taking a break). That is when I saw that he hadn’t done anything last night and all he has was a little snowblower.

I didn’t give him a chance to shoo me off and I just started blowing out the end of the driveway, which was above my big snowblower. It took about half an hour with the two of us working on finishing his driveway. I would plow through the big stuff first and he would come behind me like a conga line. He was appreciative and I felt pretty good about it.

I didn’t do this or write about it for kudos or anything else. I did it because it was the right thing to do and as a reminder that we need to look out for our neighbors, even the old crotchety ones that don’t always act like they want your help. Sometimes they actually need it and maybe the next time they won’t be as crotchety around ya. 🙂

No running or driving yesterday, after my doctor’s appointment. Nothing wrong, just my Primary Care physical, since my health insurance doesn’t recognize the VA Health Care System and I have to have a PCP, I go to them once every couple of years, which also allows me to see if anyone overlooked something, sort of a double-check, which is nice. No issues and the doc told me of all the 60 year olds on her caseload, I was probably the healthiest, but one of the most stubborn, because I don’t want much from them – no drugs, no procedures, no visits in 18 months (my last physical). I just said why come in if I don’t need to, I tend to take pretty good care of myself – for the most part. I chuckled and told her, I feel a lot better the less I see you Doc. She laughed.

Sometimes I wonder if there is more truth to that comment than we want to admit. Sure if I have broken, cut or have some kind of emergent care thing the docs are great. However, I gotta wonder if “for profit” medicine always has a person’s wellness as the first priority and if not how far down the list it has gone.

I did get in 8.0 miles on the elliptical yesterday.

After doing the snow blowing this morning, I got to roof rake the garage.

The lee side had a 4 foot drift on it, which was packed in hard, so it had to come off. Two hours later, my shoulders were screaming and my runner’s arms (chicken wings) were beyond tired. I got it done, but damn, standing in snow up to your crotch makes lots of things cold from there down. By the time I got done, I was done.

So I ate lunch and headed to the gym. Well I did after they delivered oil, which after this cold snap, was needed and was a bit of a relief – it is always better to have the heating oil in the tank, than taking a chance on availability when conditions are this extreme for extended periods.

Once on the treadmill, I decided to go for a quicker 5K (after all it would be my 2018 5K PR). I started out at 7.2 mph and then after a mile, starting picking up the pace. Everything felt good, it seemed that the prolonged standing in the snow bank while roof raking didn’t negatively effect anything. I even had enough for a bit of a kick for the last part of the run. I am still working on the calibration of the footpod/watch again and once I get it close this time I wont frig around with it.

With all the outside snow removal work, I am not all that worried about my mileage, that will come later in the year when the roads are clear and it ain’t below zero temps.

I was happy with the run and finished with a better time than I expected for as much as I had done in the last 24 hours.

Once that was done, I had my weekly acupuncture appointment this afternoon. She poked quite a few more holes in the old body and kidded around with me that I was starting to look more like a porcupine. I chimed in that I felt more like a pin cushion. It does seem to be helping, because my shoulder tonight fee a LOT better than they did before I went in.

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Meb and Me 8-3-14

Shalane and me 10/19/12

Bart Yasso during 10/19/12 FunRun

Harold being Harold

Quarry Road 5K 6-10-14 Photo3 – by TJ Wheeler

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This is my blog and I typically write about the day in the life of a long-time runnah (yeah, I am from Maine), who has run since the early 70’s, still runs a bit, likes running shoes way too much and even has a life beyond running. If you keep reading you might have a few chuckles from my misadventures, get few unsolicited opinions on a wide variety of subjects and find out that getting old ain’t for the faint of heart, but at the same time it is better than the alternative.